The bestselling author of the Tom Thorne detective series found fresh ideas at his Florida villa, now on sale for £300,000

Slideshow: Mark Billingham’s Sarasota home

Mark Billingham, the crime writer, has owned a villa in Florida for three years

Photograph: Cy Cyr

Mark Billingham knows that even when the sun is shining, there are shadows
everywhere. The author of 11 bestselling crime novels and creator of Tom
Thorne, the popular north London detective inspector, has made a career out
of finding the darkness under the gloss of everyday life.

As he sits by the pool at his Florida villa or walks the nearby white-sand
beaches, his mind is turning over plot lines that will drag readers to
places where they would rather not venture. Just as the seedy side of
London, with its grimy flats and rain-soaked streets, forms the backdrop for
the Tom Thorne novels, so Florida inspired his new book, Rush of Blood.

“There’s always a dark underside to even the most glamorous of locations,
though on the surface they seem like paradise,” says Billingham, 51.
“Florida might have this image of being all sunshine, but it can be pretty